Numerous package designs and utensils have been devised for cooking various foodstuffs in microwave ovens. However, certain foodstuffs are difficult to heat uniformly in a microwave oven and dispense the foodstuff after heating in the microwave oven. This is particularly true for foodstuffs such as processed cheese that is to be melted and dispensed in a flowable state. Conventional microwave food packages for processed cheese include rigid cup like receptacles. In such designs the outer portions of the processed cheese contained in the cup like receptacle tend to heat faster than the interior portion. Thus, in order to reduce the cheese to a flowable (e.g. liquid) state, the outer portions of the cheese tend to burn and stick to the sides of the receptacle, while the interior portion "pools" at the bottom of the receptacle. This is inefficient and undesirable in terms of the energy and food wasted, and the reduced amount of melted cheese available after heating in the microwave oven. It is also difficult to easily and completely dispense all of the melted cheese from the receptacle without a utensil and thus more of the foodstuff tends to be wasted when utensils are not available.
Further, it would be tedious and time consuming to clean such a package and/or a utensil, if reuse were desired.
Another problem associated with some foodstuffs, such as processed cheese for use as a sauce, are the gasses, such as steam, that may be released from the foodstuff during heating in a microwave oven. If the package is open during cooking, the foodstuff may spill from the package, with evident undesirable results. Conversely, if the package is sealed during cooking to prevent the loss of the foodstuff, the gasses released during heating may create an undesirably high level of pressure within the package, again with potentially undesirable results if the package is unexpectedly breached.
Yet another problem associated with such food packages is that of handling the package and foodstuff after heating in a microwave oven, since the package tends to be too hot for direct manual contact. Further, the foodstuff not only heats rapidly, but also tends to cool and lose heat too rapidly for convenient dispensing after heating. If the foodstuff is not flowable in an unheated state, the too rapid cooling of the foodstuff may prevent dispensing of the foodstuff from the package.